Below are the official ARIA Top 100 End of Year Charts from the 1990s. There were plenty of excellent songs that didn't feature in the year end Top 100s, so I've compiled the 'next Top 100' songs of each year. Enjoy!

The top 60 is correct. I had ARIA send me the top 100 year ends of every year back in 2000 of all the 90s charts. I now have all ARIA top 100 year ends of every year on my IPod. Every other year end is accurate with what ARIA sent me except 1991.

91. Every Heartbeat – Amy Grant92. Play That Funky Music – Vanilla Ice93. Candy – Iggy Pop94. Slave – James Reyne95. Just The Way It Is Baby – The Rembrandts96. Emotions – Mariah Carey97. Love Will Never Do Without You – Janet Jackson98. More Than Words Can Say – Alias99. All Night Long – Cathy Dennis100. Let’s Kiss Like Angels Do – Wendy Matthews

I should also add Ain't No Sunshine was released at the end of November 1991 (3 weeks prior to the 1991 year end chart) and its chart success was in early 1992 so #62 seems quite high for it. More so because Cream is ranked below it which was released earlier and always ranked higher in weekly charts. I was surprised to see it missing from the 1992 countdown but when you see that Black Or White ranked so low it isn't much of a surprise to see it absent from the 92 year end. Last edited: 12/12/2015 14:09

One correction to the 1999 chart HP's,Europe's 'The Final Countdown 2000' had a peak of #33,not #30. As far as i can remember,it's top 50 run was 33-40-47.Great work kev,posting these.I'm looking forward to looking through the lists and remembering songs i've forgotten. Already from K8's list i don't remember Alias' 'More than words can say' at all.

Grant (savagegrant) compiled them and they are all accurate. I checked Gavin's (bulion) EOY charts too and they all match mine and Grant's.

The EOY Top 100 Aria charts from 1990, 1991 and 1992 were easily the most inaccurate. Bust a Move, Epic, Blaze of Glory, Don’t Go Now, Rush, Black and White, Cream, Let's Talk About Sex should all be higher up in the EOY Top 100.

But, it is what it is and ARIA wont calculate them again.

The Final Countdown peak position of #33 has been updated.

More Than Words Can Say by Alias only peaked at #30 in OZ and wasn't one of the more memorable songs of 1991. It was a major hit in the US and Canada though.

There's no doubting that there were errors in the years you mention, but in terms of official, I have to agree with K8. His listing is what I copied from ARIA's website years ago and saved it in a word doc. They don't have that listing on their website now, only the top 50 singles and albums for the year. Maybe they've changed their mind on official.

Dunno, but the 2 chart kings on this forum (bulion and savagegrant) have the Top 100 of 1991 matching mine (not K8's). Bulion...please explain!

The chart runs of Operaa House, Wicked Game, It’s Only The Beginning and Just The Way It Is, Baby weren't that strong but neither were some of the other songs featured in the Top 100 of 1991 that I have listed so, ARIA, you really buggered up the charts from these years!

However, I did read somewhere that record sales in Australia for the last 3 weeks of 1991 were incredibly strong hence why some songs that charted well in December made it to the year end Top 100.

Does anyone have the physical Aria Top 50 chart from Dec 29, 1991 as I'm fairly certain Black or White was Platinum X 3 at that stage which would of placed it at #2 of 1991.

As for the last month and the chart starting Dec 1 91... Black Or White (#34), I'm Too Sexy (#13), Just Like You (#44), When Something Is Wrong (#63), Cream (#70) & The Fly (#48)... Again with 3 #1's they also faired poorly imo.

So sales for the start and end of the 91 year end were not as strong as mid year.

Also worth noting the 91 year end came out mid December so a lot of December sales would have counted to the 92 year end. The chart I sent states the cut off date so hopefully I can locate it.

Unfortunately I don't have the physical chart from Dec 29, 1991. I'm guessing that the physical chart would actually be the 5th of Jan 1992 due to over Christmas they would have a two week break and release a chart that states '3 weeks ending...'.

I do have the physical chart for the 12th Jan 1992, and Black and White is a Platinum x 2.

I could be incorrect with my memory of where I got my EOY chart listing for 1991. Looking at my copied data in my word document, I do have some links which no longer work, and the link address is the following:

I know the year ends have a number of descrepencies but I find it hard to believe that a song like Ain't No Sunshine that charted for only 3 weeks before the 1991 year end listing came out would be as high as #62 above a song like Cream which charted longer and was always higher in the weekly charts in those 3 weeks. The rest of the songs that charted in the top 10 during November and December don't have particularly high year end placings to support Ain't No Sunshine being so high either.

If I am correct then the 1991 chart took a 2-3 week break over Christmas so there was never a new chart and the chart from mid December was the same chart for this period of time. They played the year end countdown on Rage for 2 weeks. I remember this because I would always try to wake up to try and beat my last attempt at getting as much of the year end as I could and got from mid #58 at best.

As for More Than Words Can Say. The same can be said about Freedom making the top 60 with a mediocre chart run.

I will look long and hard for the year end chart ARIA sent me back in 2000.

> If I am correct then the 1991 chart took a 2-3 week break over> Christmas so there was never a new chart and the chart from> mid December was the same chart for this period of time. They> played the year end countdown on Rage for 2 weeks.

That is correct. There were 2 week breaks every year for the ARIA chart over Christmas, other than 1988 and 1994 which were one week, until Christmas breaks stopped being a thing in 1997.

Rage aired the top 60 of 1991 on two consecutive weekends. I was glad, as my family went on holiday after Xmas that year, and I resorted to talking my parents into hiring a VCR (for $10 a night) from the hotel so I could record it during the first weekend... only for rage to then run a notice that it would be repeated the following weekend, when we were back home. As it turns out, my recording didn't work the first weekend it aired.

PS Finn, the first printed top 50 chart of 1992 was the week ending 12th January 1992 one. There was no chart on the 5th.Last edited: 15/12/2015 07:23

I just noticed the top 100 chart BigKev posted for 1991 is different to the ARIA one posted here for positions 61-100. Gavin Ryan's book seems to use the same top 100 as BigKev has posted, as it's got 'Mary Had a Little Boy' as being #100 for 1991.

The older charts ARIA produced were without Xmas figures, which funnily enough, were usually counted in the next years' EOY. I calculate charts between 1st Jan-31st Dec per year, and base them purely on chart positions, accreditation achieved, and rapid accreditation progression. I like to think, say 1990 would be a truer reflection of the ARIA chart, as per Nate's comment on those "missing" singles are included here. Evident in 1991's chart, I have calculated possible (probable) positions had the singles been calculated in the calendar year rather than until the beginning of December.

Each year takes a long time to write up, so I am aiming for 1975-2015 by the end of the year, with an All Time to follow.

I'm following what bulion (Gavin Ryan) says. The original and official EOY Top 100 for 1991 matches mine and bulions. It seems somebody from ARIA posted an altered EOY Top 100 for 1991 quite a few years later.

I don't know what chart Bulion got but there is something I find a bit sketchy with that year end.

Looking at the link BigKev posted today you say Ain't No Sunshine debuted on the 3rd of November yet according to this site it debuted on the week 24/11/1991 at #34.

If we look at the following 4 weeks it's chart run goes 34, 20, 12, 9which really doesn't warrant a #62 year end rank.

The 1991 year end came out about the 19th December of that year so quite possibly allowing Ain't No Sunshine 4 weeks could be more than generous.

Ain't No Sunshine did not reach it's peak until January of 1992 and remained in the top 10 for the whole month of January and half of Feburary.

Most songs that were charting in November of 1991 had poor ranks in the 1991 year end.

Like I said before with Cream by Prince. Your year end has him ranked lower at #70 with a chart run 6, 4, 3, 4 in the same weeks Ain't No Sunshine was charting plus a further three weeks prior, one of which was in the top 10.

Bulion, it looks like someone made up a year end or gave you a false chart because there is no way Ain't No Sunshine featured in the 1991 year end. I don't see why ARIA would now be claiming the other chart as official.Last edited: 21/12/2015 08:06

Bulion, I would like to see a scan of what ARIA sent you as proof. Until I see that, what Matt posted (tinascousin) looks like the official listing from ARIA as they published in whatever publication that came out at the end of 1991.

I will correct k8 on one point he makes. Ain't no Sunshine certainly did debut on the 3 Nov 1991, as that's when it entered the top 100. This site only gives information on what singles and albums do in the top 50 charts. Ain't no Sunshine debuted in the top 50 on the 24 Nov 1991. It's entire chart run from the 3 Nov 1991 was:

96 66 54 34 20 12 9 7 7 7 5 6 6 6 10 13 17 28 27 40 48 60 71 83 92.

It's final chart entry was on the 19 Apr 1992. It's peak was on the 12 Jan 1992 at pos. 5.

I know the charts had a lot of discrepancies in the early 90s but ARIA was never that generous with songs charting late in the year. Often the only songs to make the year end top 100 were the current top 5 which would also make the following years countdown too.

I should probably add the cut off for the 1991 year end was probably earlier and you could probably exclude a week or two from the chart run.

Peter Combe's 'Christmas Album' only had 3 weeks in the Top 100 (91, 56, 49) at the end of 1990 and was certified gold. It was listed as the 89th 'biggest selling' album of 1990 in the EOY album charts.

They probably shipped 30,000 copies to ABC stores, Target and Kmart and marked them down as sold although many copies most likely sat on the shelves/packed away in boxes for months.

^ Geez BigKev, that's shocking! I remember seeing some children's album (not the Wiggles, but something else) in the early 90's debut in the ARIA top 50 albums chart in the 40's with a gold certification already, and wondering how on earth that was possible.

Celine Dion/R Kelly's 'I'm Your Angel' somehow ended up in the top 100 of 1998, even though it only peaked at #31 and debuted in the top 50 in December.

Mariah's 'Joy To the World' also somehow made the top 100 of 1995, even though it peaked at just #33 and charted in the top 50 for 2 weeks before the end of the year (and one of those weeks probably wasn't included in the tally for the year-end chart).

Ricky Martin's 'Shake Your Bon Bon' is another anomoly, making the 1999 end of year chart despite only charting 43-37-36-39-31 that year; the last week (or 2) probably not being included in the tally. This was in the ARIAnet era, too, which you think would be more accurate.Last edited: 23/12/2015 01:03

It's quite feasible to me that Peter Coombs could sell enough albums to make an EOY chart. I would imagine an album of its kind would be popular with families with children, particularly for Xmas. As BigKev said, I would expect the ABC stores were packed with the album to give it a Gold status. From memory, from very distant memory, I believe not all stores were counted in the ARIA weekly charts. It's quite possible this included ABC stores - who knows. I have an inkling that department stores weren't counted for a while there, either. It would then make sense the difference between the weekly charts - which came from "certain" record stores, and the EOY chart, which may have been compiled from "actual" sales provided by record companies.

I've experienced these so called discrepancies since back in the day, and just live with them. I guess it's a reason why I make my own. Last edited: 23/12/2015 01:14

I am sure I read somewhere that Joy To The World/All I Want For Christmas had combined sales.

Same for Coolio... 1234 made the year end top 30 in 1996 with a peak of #13 yet Gangsta's Paradise was #1 in January of that year yet failed to make the top 100 and yet songs like Boom Boom Boom and One Sweet Day did.

I vaguely recall that an early iteration of the ARIA website used to list all of its "ARIAnet Chart Stores". It was a reasonably long list, according to my vague recollection, but it seemed clear to me at the time (although I couldn't put my hand on my heart and say I know categorically) that it was far from being every single music retailer in the country. So even when they were collecting POS sales data, it was most likely still a 'representative sample' of total sales.Last edited: 23/12/2015 12:04

The 1991 end of year albums chart data used in Gavin Ryan's book also differs to that on the original ARIA top 50 chart. e.g. 'The Immaculate Collection' is listed as the 25th highest-selling album of 1991, but on the printed top 50 chart that was available in stores back then, it's listed as the 8th highest-seller for the year, as I've scanned here - http://i.imgur.com/tFKJV6s.jpg . Jimmy Barnes' 'Soul Deep' is listed in the book as both the #1 and #3 album for 1991, but it's #33 on the printed top 50 chart Last edited: 24/12/2015 02:33

The ARIA top 50 albums chart of 1991 that was printed on the chart available in stores seems dodgy too; with e.g. Bryan Adams' 'Waking Up the Neighbours' certified 3x platinum being placed lower than the 'Twin Peaks' soundtrack, certified 1x platinum. I know that certifications are based on shipments, but it still seems off that Bryan Adams would be that over-certified/'Twin Peaks' that under-certified, when both would have had all of their sales within 1991 here.

The Commitments soundtrack, certified 2x platinum, is also placed lower than Lenny Kravitz's 'Mama Said', certified gold; both albums having all of their sales within 1991 as well.

Daryl Braithwaite's 'Rise' album is the #1 album of the year, but it peaked at #3 on the weekly charts, and 'Vagabond Heart' is listed as the #1 album on every state chart other than NSW.Last edited: 24/12/2015 04:51

It wouldn't surprise me Re: michael jackson, nugs. He was pretty big in those days and if my memory serves me right 1991 was before the trial happened and it having been 4 years since his last studio album (not counting the moonwalker OST) it might have been expected for Dangerous to have had strong sales

It's important to keep a few key things in mind with timelines around ARIA EOY charts from the early 90s:

1) artists/record companies used to have a tendency to release new albums in time for Christmas; chart positions and sales accreditations were frequently out of whack towards the end of the year, particularly where hugely successful artists or highly anticipated releases were concerned;

2) typically throughout the 90s, during the weeks leading up to Christmas album sales were hugely increased over the rest of the year. It wasn't unusual for an album with a very short chart life and perhaps only a week or two spent at or near the top of the chart to amass sales worth multiple platinum accreditations in as little as a week or two;

3) there's little direct correlation between sales and sales accreditations as it is, but this was even more so the case over the weeks leading up to Christmas during the early 90s;

4) EOYs were typically published with the most current sales accreditation, while representing a twelve month sales period that usually only covered up to the first or second week of December (usually some date close to or a little before the last weekly chart of the year). As a result, sales accreditations on the EOYs were often higher than they'd appeared on the last weekly chart of the year (presumably a result of the EOY calculation process?);

5) the EOYs usually weren't available in music stores until mid-January. Sometimes they appeared during the two-to-three week period when no weekly charts were produced, sometimes even later than that. Today's immediacy certainly wasn't the way of things in the early-90s;

6) before POS sales data was electronically captured, I always felt there was sometimes a lag of a week or more between sales data being captured and those sales being reported on a chart. In the early 90s, the astronomical sales and sometimes unexpected increases in sales accreditations often appeared to have continued into the first few weeks of January before falling back to normal post-Xmas levels by the end of January. This was despite the fact that shopper numbers had almost always dwindled within a week of the post-Christmas sales kicking off - thus my theory about the capture/reporting lag.

In a nutshell, it's probably a bit pointless trying to find much logic in the December/January charts from the early 90s, coz what with all the overlapping timeframes and reporting delays and differences between shipping and shopping, I doubt there's much actual logic to find.Last edited: 27/12/2015 04:43

The official EOY albums for 1991 differs greatly from the ARIA Top 50 EOY physical chart at the time and what's listed in the Book. EOY chart positions are clearly based on sales not chart runs as every album in the Top 10 of Dec 22, 1991 features prominently in the EOY Top 100.

But the top 50 EOY printed chart is official; as is the different top 100 EOY chart that (presumably) appeared in the ARIA Report. I don't see how the #1 album of 1991 (Rise) can suddenly be placed 13 places lower; even taking into account extra late December 1991 sales.

On an ARIA top 100 chart from 1989 that I've seen, sent from them in .xl format, it has Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' listed as 'Wild Thing Y2K' (the 2000 remix), supposedly debuting in the top 100 in 1989. Johnny Diesel & The Injectors' 'Soul Revival' is listed as 'Soul'd Out' by Johnny C; whatever that is. Maybe their database, if that's where they sourced this different 1991 EOY chart from, isn't 100% accurate - or maybe they generated a 1991 EOY list based on *total* sales for those releases (i.e. not just the sales they achieved during the 1991 chart year).

As far as I am concerned what ARIA states as official is what I see to be official not based on no real evidence that BigKev is posting for 1991.

Interesting to see Rod Stewart the #1 album in every state but fail to make the top 10 in NSW.

Also with Bryan Adams, I imagine he was 3xP in shipments however alot of his sales probably came in December and in 1992 after the year end cut off. From memory his album came out rather late in the year and much later than his single Everything I Do...

Funny how they left the platnium triangle out for Madonna's Immaculate Collection in ARIA's official chart posting that Nugs posted.

On the top100singles.blogspot link there is a 90s ARIA top 100 singles chart that was provided by chri8topher.

Is this official or estimated?

Am curious as he has a song which featured in two year end top tens at positions #10 and #8 below a song which was in the same two year ends at #9 and #67. You would assume the first song would be higher seeing as it featured in two top tens and was only one position below the other song in the first year so the difference in sales for that year between the two songs mustn't have been too big.

The EOY Top 100 albums from 1991 were taken from Gavin Ryan's (bulion) EOY Top 100's and they are official. It's based on real evidence, K8! Gavin knows his stuff as he has released over 10 charts books over the years and writes Chartifacts for ARIA and for Noise 11.

Perhaps the EOY album sales for 1991 was based on sales from Jan 1, 1991 to Dec 31, 1991 rather than chart runs. It looks like this is the case.

Rise only peaked at #3 and wasn't in the Top 40 for the last 8 weeks of 1991 (when album sales were at their highest for the year).

Waking Up The Neighbours charted for 13 weeks in 1991 but as you can see from the 'Weeks In' for many of the Top 20 at Dec 22, 1991 you didn't many weeks in to sell large amounts of albums. Dangerous sold 280,000+ copies in 5 weeks at the end of 1991.

BigKev, it's possible that Bulion was sent incorrect data. Hopefully he can scan proof like Finn requested. ARIA is claiming the other year end is official.

I got my data back in 2000 and TC probably got his a lot earlier. Even Nugs has an official ARIA listing of the albums year end chart presumably from 1991 and you are denying it to be authentic and official because you insist yours is correct and we are seeing no proof other then Bulion says so because he is a chart guru.

No worries. It's good to have a chart debate but I reckon the EOY album sales for 1991 were based on sales from Jan 1, 1991 to Dec 31, 1991 rather than chart runs. It seems as though this EOY was released well after the end of 1991.

If you review each of the albums in my/bulions EOY from 1991 about 90% seem right based on sales within 1991. Greatest Hits by Queen, We Cant Dance and The George Thorogood Collection chart positions are highly questionable though.

> Perhaps the EOY album sales for 1991 was based on sales from> Jan 1, 1991 to Dec 31, 1991 rather than chart runs. It looks like> this is the case.

But the ARIA top 50 EOY chart also states that it is based on sales for the 12 months ended December 1991. ARIA EOY charts have always been based on sales; it's only the Kent Report era EOY charts that were based on chart runs.

But platinum accreditations are based on shipments, not sales. The difference between the two would likely be even more pronounced back then, when all sales were physical sales.

> Rise only peaked at #3 and wasn't in the Top 40 for the last 8> weeks of 1991 (when album sales were at their highest for the> year).

How do you know sales were highest at the end of the year? Sure, there was likely to have been a Christmas sales boost, but do you have actual data or are you just making assumptions? There was also a recession around this time, don't forget.

> Dangerous sold 280,000+ copies in 5 weeks at the end of> 1991.

Again, this reflects its shipment figures, not sales data.

Perhaps the chart bulion was given reflects shipment data rather than sales? It would make sense, with the #1 and #2 albums both being 4x platinum by the end of 1991.Last edited: 29/12/2015 01:01

Regardless of what looks correct and what doesn't, I want to know what was regarded as official at the time. I've seen the proof in what Nathan and Matt have scanned and uploaded to this site, but I've seen nothing as proof from bulion or BigKev. I don't want to disrespect the good work he does (or what BigKev does) as it is invaluable the information they both post to this site, but I want to see what was official from 1991, and I haven't seen it yet from either of them.

This is an interesting debate, given that this has been a known "problem" for decades!

The "new" 1991 list seems suspiciously made up by accreditation, with 1990 releases estimated into the list. It's very neat in the way that all the Platinums are separate from all the Gold's, which hardly ever happened. I'm sure, while Kylie's "Let's Get To It" was accredited Gold upon its release, with a chart run of 13-27-38, I wouldn't think it would have sold anywhere near that - so its apparent position of #86 in the "new" list seems strange, even by the ARIA standards. Oh, and the Kylie album is actually one of my faves, so pity it was so quickly disregarded.

For the record, Michael Bolton's "Time, Love And Tenderness" was the original ARIA #100 albums for 1991, and doesn't make the new list most probably because of its non-accreditation, however, with an 11 week run in the Top 50 - heavy in the #20's and #30's, I would have to say his would be the more successful album.

ARIA's EOY's are usually pretty logical - except 1990, which strangely left off critical Top Ten hits from the list in favour of some that barely made the Top 20. This one doesn't make sense. However, if you consider the cut off for the following years was at the start of December, 1991 onwards do make sense. I would believe the cut off for 1991 WAS the week "Dangerous" and "Achtung Baby" debuted. These albums were huge, and I totally believe first week sales would put them in their #47 and #29 EOY positions.

As for my 90's list on the blogspot, I've never claimed to be official, and this list would be very out of date, as I've revised my scoring system, and have better information since I made this list. My lists are totally based on chart positions and accreditation updates, and the outcome makes for a "logical" representation of the success of the years' releases. I leave the sales lists up to ARIA, but their lists are sometimes hard to comprehend. The best example is their End of decade list for the 2000's, which is missing many many hits of the earlier part if favour of lower charting singles in the later part.

Anyway, plenty to chew on with this subject. I should stop now. Last edited: 29/12/2015 02:02

Surely gold and platinum accreditations are based on sales otherwise the entire ARIA chart is flawed (which it is for some years/chart placings!).

But, look at Top 20 album charts at the end of December for many years in the 90's especially and half of the albums in the Top 20 at that time had high EOY placings as they sold well in the lead up to XMAS. Again, surely these accreditations are based on sales.

An album back in December 1991 cost between $20-25 AUD but CD sales in 1991 were at an all-time high in Australia so 20 odd bucks for a XMAS present seemed reasonable. The recession eased in the last quarter of 1991.

Big Kev, the Popstars Live group single, 'Stand Up Next To Me' (I think that's what it was called), debuted in the low 40's with a gold certification in its opening week. I remember a post from an (unofficial) ARIA chart email list I was on at the time that announced it with: "Ladies and gentlemen: welcome to the flop of the year".

ARIA certifications have never been based directly on sales. In this digital era, it's quite likely that they do reflect actual sales, for singles. But the Popstars Live example above, from 2004, illustrates how the shipments and sales sometimes don't match up at all.

> An album back in December 1991 cost between $20-25 AUD> but CD sales in 1991

Actually it was more like $28.99! I remember when JB Hi-Fi opened in early '92 where I lived, and it was a huge novelty paying 'only' $23.95 for CD's instead of $28 something.Last edited: 29/12/2015 02:21

Back in the physical-only era, highly-anticipated releases (or releases that were thought to be highly-anticipated, like the '04 Popstars flop!) often saw larger than usual shipments to retail. There are countless examples over the years which illustrate where anticipated sales either eventuated or bombed. Back in the early-to-mid 90s it wasn't unusual to see new releases from really big artists (e.g. Michael Jackson, John Farnham, U2, etc) debut at #1 with a double or triple platinum accreditation from the get-go. It also wasn't all that unusual to see sort-of anticipated albums from once big artists (i.e. the less-successful follow-up to a really massive album) debut further down the top 10 with an accreditation that clearly didn't reflect actual sales.

Incidentally, while it would be good to get to the bottom of exactly why there seem to be different configurations of the 1991 EOY chart floating around, until otherwise confirmed surely the only 'official' 1991 EOY ARIA Chart is the one that was published by ARIA at the time? The Top 50 component was available in music stores in early 1992 and the full Top 100 was published in the ARIA Report and sent to subscribers. Unless ARIA formally republished a revised 1991 Top 100 chart at some point, to account for errors or omissions with the original (which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't happened), then the originals are still the 'official' charts. It could be debated endlessly here, or the differences presented by the more recent data could be sent back to ARIA with a 'please explain' request - one has a little more potential of arriving at a definitive answer than the other, I suspect Last edited: 30/12/2015 08:18

Yep, K8, I'm with you and that's exactly what I'm getting at. The 'revised' version to which I refer is the one posted above and the same one that's referenced on the Top 100 Singles blog. Revised by who? Who knows, but the data must've come from somewhere. I don't personally believe the 1991 EOY chart has ever been officially revised, however out of whack some observers may think it looks nearly 24 years later. Believe me, I'm as curious as you (and presumably most readers of this thread) to know where / when / why / how the variation came about. I daresay there's a simple enough answer, especially considering the entire Top 60 is identical in both variants.Last edited: 30/12/2015 10:09

Considering the 1991 year end cut off was the start of December 1991 most of the songs that feature in the "unofficial" year end and not the "official" peaked in mid December or early 1992.

I know ARIA had a few question marks with some of the year ends but unless a song was top 5 in early December it pretty much missed the year end altogether and might have had a shot at making the following year.

I mentioned Ain't No Sunshine previously but if you look at the top 50 chart runs of some of these new songs until mid December it's hard to believe they would make the top 100 year end in any given year (unless it was 1997 where they could have stood a chance). I have included the last chart of 1991 even though we know the year end was calculated 2 or 3 weeks prior so you can pretty much scrap 2 of these weeks as they would not count towards the year end anyway.

I think the reason for the two different charts if because a lot of the songs that squeezed in the 1991 charts didn't crack the 1992 charts

As bad as 1991 was, at least it wasn't as bad as 1992 where the first third seemed to have barely any impact on the list, and at least with the two charts suggest that whichever one came out first Aria had the good will to remake it

Honestly I think Aria should remake all of the 90's EOYC, none of them can be remotely accurate

I started listening to Take 40 Australia around May 1988, and although I didn't realise it at the time, they aired a different chart to ARIA's until the second chart of 1989. It wasn't the AMR/Kent Report chart either, there some quite large differences at times - e.g. I remember Bangles 'In Your Room' peaked at #28 on Take 40 Australia vs #41 ARIA, Voice of the Beehive's 'Don't Call Me Baby' peaked at #35 vs #48 ARIA, Yazz's 'Stand Up For Your Love Rights' peaked at #13 vs #22 ARIA (during the first chart of 1989). Jason Donovan's 'Nothing Can Divide Us' was also #1 for a week on Take 40 Australia, and I think the Timelords' 'Doctorin' the Tardis' also reached #1.

But, even after Take 40 Australia switched to broadcasting the ARIA chart, their end of year chart was still different - at least in 1989 and 1990, e.g. 'Kokomo' was the #1 single of 1989, which is different to both ARIA and AMR's EOY 1989 chart.

I don't think I listened to the end of year chart on Take 40 Australia in later years, so I don't know about that.

They also aired a top 40 for the first half of 1992 show, too, which surely wouldn't have been an ARIA-based chart. They aired a top 40 biggest artists of the year chart at the end of 1992.Last edited: 31/12/2015 05:41

I remember toward the end of the 90's take 40 did a top 100 and it was completely different from ARIA. I don't remember the year,but it had 'Touch It' by Monifah as one of the first few songs so i'm sure someone can narrow it down by that song.

Matty d, I have a theory in regard to the first third of 1992. I was going through accreditations for that year not too long ago, and noticed that there was not much in the way of gold or platinum accreditations for that time period. I'd have to look again to be sure, but I think that may explain it.

Nugs, being the nerd I was back in 1988, I used to write down the Take 40 Australia radio show every week. My first one was around Nov 1987 and the last I think was sometime in 1990. I started collecting the physical charts Mar 1989. I certainly noticed the different chart placings as well.

Finn, I used to do that too... though didn't start until after a couple of months of listening to Take 40 Australia. I cottoned on in early 1989 that rage aired the chart (and a top 50) a week before it aired on Take 40, so ditched the radio show. There was also a (national, I think) program, the Rock 40 Countdown, in the early 90s, that used a different chart to ARIA's, and wasn't the AMR chart either, I don't think. Hosted by Mike Hammond. If you still have those Take 40 charts from the period where they differed to the ARIA one, I'd love to take a look.

K8, Video Hits used the AMR chart until it ceased publication. I don't remember specifically for 1990, but Video Hits definitely aired a top 100 (surely it wouldn't have been the full top 100 though; the show only went for 3 hours max including ads) for 1992.

Can The 12th Man Again be really be considered a single as listed in the 101-200 for 1990? It is listed on the discogs in the albums and the singles category, but as the track goes for 38mins, I don't think it deserves single status.

Sorry for what appears to be a winge, as BigKev has done a great job with these listings.